Semiconductor Device and Method of Controlling Non-Volatile Memory Device

ABSTRACT

A control circuit of a semiconductor device (memory module) realizes long life and others by a mechanism that suppresses and smoothes variations in use of a memory by equalizing the sizes of data write and data erase with respect to a data write request and sequentially allocating and using addresses of the memory in data write to an overwritable non-volatile memory device without carrying out an overwriting operation even in the case of an overwrite request. The control circuit realizes data write by a set of two types of operations of (a) an operation of erasing data of a first address or an operation of setting a flag value to an invalid state and (b) an operation of writing data to a second address different from the first address or an operation of setting a flag value to a valid state.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority from Japanese Patent ApplicationNo. 2011-088032 filed on Apr. 12, 2011, the content of which is herebyincorporated by reference to this application.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the techniques for semiconductordevices such as semiconductor memories and ICs and particularly relatesto the techniques effectively applied to a device (memory module) madeup of non-volatile memory devices and a control circuit device and amethod of controlling the non-volatile memory devices by the controlcircuit device in an information processing system thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Examples of non-volatile memory devices include a NAND-type flash memory(SSD or the like) and a resistance-change-type non-volatile memory(phase-change memories, ReRAM, or the like).

[(1) NAND-Type Flash Memory]

The NAND-type flash memory is utilized in a storage device such as SSD(Solid State Drive) and a memory card. The SSD made up of a plurality ofNAND-type flash memories and a controller is utilized in, for example,server equipment, a laptop PC, or a netbook (notebook PC).

A NAND-type flash memory is described in, for example, Data Sheet ofNAND-type flash (TC58NVG2S3ETA00) (Non-Patent Document 4). The NAND-typeflash memory shown in Non-Patent Document 4 has an upper limit for anerase count, and the size of data write and the size of data erase arelargely different from each other.

A method of controlling a NAND-type flash memory is disclosed in, forexample, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.2008-146255, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.07-153285, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.2002-533810, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.2004-240572 (Patent Documents 1, 2, 3, and 4).

The characteristics of the NAND-type flash memories are, for example:(1) the erase count of a memory region has an upper limit, (2) the sizeof data write (“page”) and the size of data erase (“block”) are largelydifferent from each other, and (3) overwrite cannot be carried out(operation of collective write after read and erase are once carried outis required). Particularly, above-described (1) relates to the problemof the life of the device, and above-described (2) and (3) relate to theproblem of inefficiency (processing efficiency) of, for example, datawrite.

[(2) Resistance-Change-Type Non-Volatile Memory (Phase-Change Memory orthe Like)]

As the resistance-change-type non-volatile memory, a phase-changememory, a resistance-change memory (ReRAM: Resistive RAM), and othershave been developed.

The characteristics of the phase-change memories are, for example: (1)the write count of a memory region has an upper limit, (2) the size ofdata write and the size of data erase are the same and small, (3)overwrite can be carried out, and (4) the resistance value of a memorycell (element) after data write may be varied. Particularly,above-described (1) relates to the problem of the life of the device,above-described (2) and (3) relate to the problem of efficiency(processing efficiency) of, for example, data write, and above-described(4) relates to the problem of instability (reliability) of, for example,data read.

As a data erasing operation in the phase-change memory, for example, asshown in FIG. 16, a reset pulse (1601) is uniformly applied to a targetmemory region from a control circuit, thereby equalizing the values ofthe target memory cells (resistance values) (for example, to storageinformation ‘1’).

Furthermore, as the techniques studied by the inventor of the presentinvention, for example, the following techniques are conceivable in asemiconductor device including the phase-change memory.

A storage element uses a chalcogenide material (or a phase-changematerial) such as Ge—Sb—Te based material or Ag—In—Sb—Te based materialcontaining at least antimony (Sb) and tellurium (Te) as a material of arecording layer. A diode is used for a selective element. Thecharacteristics of a phase-change memory (memory cell) using achalcogenide material and a diode in this manner are described in, forexample, IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, Digest ofTechnical Papers, US, 2007, pp. 472-473 (Non-Patent Document 1).

As an example of conventional techniques, FIG. 16 shows the relationbetween the pulse width and temperature required for phase change in aresistive storage element (phase-change memory cell) using aphase-change material. When storage information ‘0’ is to be written tothis storage element, a reset pulse (1601) that heats the element to amelting point Ta of the chalcogenide material or higher and then rapidlycools the element is applied. By setting the cooling time t1 to beshort, for example, about 1 ns, the chalcogenide material is brought toa high-resistance amorphous (non-crystalline) state. Reversely, whenstorage information ‘1’ is to be written, by applying a set pulse (1602)that keeps the storage element within a temperature range lower than themelting point Ta and higher than a crystallization temperature Tx, whichis equal to or higher than the glass-transition point, the chalcogenidematerial is brought to a low-resistance polycrystalline state. The timet2 required for crystallization is different depending on thecomposition of the chalcogenide material. The temperatures of theelement shown in FIG. 16 depend on the Joule heat generated by thestorage element itself and the heat diffusion to the surrounding area.

As described in IEEE International Electron Devices meeting, TECHNICALDIGEST, US, 2001, pp. 803-806 (Non-Patent Document 2), in a phase-changememory, if a resistive element structure becomes small, the electricpower required for changing the state of a phase-change film becomessmall. Therefore, in principle, this is suitable for miniaturization andhas been actively studied.

IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUIT, VOL. 40, No. 1, JANUARY 2005, US,2005, pp. 293-300 (Non-Patent Document 3) describes a phase-changememory that requires the time of about 120 ns for reducing theresistance of a chalcogenide material and the time of about 50 ns forincreasing the resistance thereof.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

As described above, any of the non-volatile storage devices such as theNAND-type flash memory and resistance-change-type non-volatile memory(phase-change memory) has problematic points and room for improvement interms of life, reliability, processing efficiency, and others inaddition to advantages thereof.

The inventor of the present invention has studied about (1) a NAND-typeflash memory (control method thereof and the like) and (2) aresistance-change-type non-volatile memory (characteristics of theresistance value of a phase-change memory using a recording layer madeof a chalcogenide material and a diode) as described below.

[(1) Study of NAND-Type Flash Memory]

For example, a 4-Gbit NAND-type flash memory (for example, Non-PatentDocument 4) is composed of a chip including a page of 2048+64=2112bytes, a block composed of 64 pages (131072+4096=135168 bytes), and 4096blocks.

A SSD is made up of a plurality of NAND-type flash memories and acontroller (flash controller) which controls these flash memories. Ahost controller (information processing device) and the SSD (flashcontroller) are connected to each other with a SATA interface. A datawrite operation to a memory (NAND-type flash memory) in the case inwhich a command to write the data corresponding to one page is issuedfrom the host controller to the SSD will be described below.

The above-described data write to the memory is carried out in a unit ofpage. In the data write, the controller has to carry out the operationof once reading the data corresponding to one block (135168 bytes) fromthe memory, erasing the data corresponding to one block, and thenwriting new data corresponding to one page (2112 bytes) In other words,the above-described data write is realized by [block readingoperation]+[block erasing operation]+[page writing operation].

The above-described NAND-type flash memory has the maximum erasablenumber of times (referred to as EMAX), and if this maximum erasablenumber of times EMAX is exceeded, the data saved in the memory is notensured. In other words, the SSD or the like utilizing the memory comesto the end of life. Therefore, in order to extend the life of the SSD orthe like, an efficient data erasing method (system including control ofdata erase) is required.

However, in the above-described memory, the data writing unit (page) andthe data erasing unit (block) are largely different from each other asdescribed above, and even when the data corresponding to, for example,one page (2112 bytes) is to be written, the amount corresponding to oneblock (135168 bytes) having a data size 64 times as large as that has tobe erased. Thus, it has been found out that the processing operationincluding data erase is extremely inefficient and it is difficult toimprove the life of the SSD or the like utilizing the memory.

Furthermore, it has been found out that when the above-described datacorresponding to one page (2112 bytes) is to be written, the datacorresponding to one block has to be read before erasing the datacorresponding one block (135168 bytes), and writing performance isdeteriorated.

[(2) Study of Resistance-Change-Type Non-Volatile Memory (Phase-ChangeMemory or the Like)]

As described above, a memory such as a phase-change memory which is aresistance-change-type non-volatile memory is capable of carrying outoverwrite of data although the memory has an upper limit value for thenumber of times of data write, and the minimum unit thereof is as smallas one byte. In other words, it has been found out that only the amountof a required data size can be rewritten.

Therefore, one of the objects of the present invention is to use thecharacteristics (advantages) of a resistance-change-type non-volatilememory such as the above-described phase-change memory to extend thelife of a memory module (device) made up of the memory and a controlcircuit thereof.

Furthermore, the contents particularly studied about the phase-changememory will be described below. In the data write to the phase-changememory, the resistance value of a phase-change memory cell is controlledby controlling the Joule heat generated by current. It has been foundout that there is a problem that the resistance values after normalrewriting operation are varied due to the differences in the electriccharacteristics of memory cells caused due to the thermal history by theJoule heat. Moreover, it has been found out that, in the case in whichthe memory cells are to be overwritten with data, the resistance valuesthereof are varied due to the differences in the state after rewrite,and therefore, resistance variations among the memory cells areincreased, and characteristics are largely affected.

Therefore, one of the objects of the present invention is to achieve thelong life and high reliability in relation to a memory module (device)made up of a memory such as the above-described phase-change memory anda control circuit thereof by managing a method of, for example, datawrite from the control circuit to the memory.

In view of the above-described studies, a main object of the presentinvention is to provide the techniques capable of realizing the longlife and high reliability in relation to a semiconductor device or thelike including a memory.

In order to achieve the above-described objects, a typical mode of thepresent invention is, for example, a memory module (semiconductordevice) made up of a memory device and a control circuit (controller)and is characterized by having the configuration shown below.

A semiconductor device of the mode is a semiconductor device comprising:a non-volatile memory device; and a control circuit device that carriesout access to the non-volatile memory device, the non-volatile memorydevice has an overwritable characteristic, the control circuit devicecarries out control by using predetermined management information so asto equalize sizes of data write and data erase with respect to anaddress region of the non-volatile memory device, the control circuitdevice carries out, with respect to a data write request from outsideincluding a first-type address and write data, control of allocating asequential second-type address of the non-volatile memory device to thefirst-type address independently from the first-type address, and whenthe request is an overwrite request to write data of a first regioncorresponding to the second-type address allocated to the first-typeaddress, without carrying out a data overwriting operation, the controlcircuit device realizes the data write by a set of two types ofoperations including: (a) an erasing operation of the write data of thefirst region or an invalidating operation of setting a flag value of thefirst region to an invalid state; and (b) a writing operation of thewrite data to the second-type address corresponding to a second regionallocated differently from the first region or a validating operation ofsetting a flag value of the second region to a valid state.

According to the typical mode of the present invention, long life, highreliability, and others can be realized in relation to a semiconductordevice including a memory and others.

(1) Particularly, the long life of a non-volatile memory device can berealized by a mechanism that suppresses and smoothes variations in thedata erase counts of the regions of the non-volatile memory device andothers.

(2) Particularly, reading processing performance can be improved andhigh reliability can be realized by a mechanism that realizes data writeby [erase]+[writing operation] without carrying out overwrite even ifthe non-volatile memory device has an overwritable system and suppresses(uniformizes) variations in the state (resistance value) ofresistance-change-type memory cells.

(3) Particularly, the long life and high reliability can be realized bya mechanism that sequentially allocates physical addresses of thenon-volatile memory device to logical addresses, which are from aninformation processing device (host), and uses the allocated addressesto suppress and smooth the variations in the data erase counts of eachregion of the physical address of the memory.

(4) Particularly, further higher performance can be realized by amechanism that carries out pipeline processes in data write.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a drawing showing a configuration example of a system(information processing system including a memory module havingnon-volatile memory devices and an information processing device) of afirst embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a drawing showing a configuration example of a control circuit(SC0) of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a drawing showing a circuit configuration example of aphase-change memory (PM) serving as the non-volatile memory device (NVM)of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a drawing showing an example of an initial sequence at thepower-on of the present system (memory module);

FIG. 5 is a drawing showing a configuration example of a physicaladdress table (PAT);

FIG. 6A is a drawing showing a physical segment table (PST1) relating toinvalid physical addresses (IPA);

FIG. 6B is a drawing showing a physical segment table (PST2) relating tovalid physical addresses (VPA);

FIG. 7A is a drawing showing a configuration example of a write physicaladdress table (NXPAT) in an initial state;

FIG. 7B is a drawing showing a configuration example of the writephysical address table (NXPAT) in an updated state;

FIG. 8A is a drawing showing a configuration example of an addressconversion table (ATT) particularly in an initial state;

FIG. 8B is a drawing showing a configuration example of storageinformation of the non-volatile memory devices (NVM) particularly in aninitial state;

FIG. 9 is a drawing showing an example of a process flow of a datawriting operation of the memory module;

FIG. 10 is a drawing showing an example of a detailed process flowrelating to the write physical address table updating process (Step 112)of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11A is an explanatory drawing of an example of updated states ofthe storage information of the address conversion table (ATT) and thenon-volatile memory devices (NVM) at the data writing operation in thememory module, which shows the state corresponding to the processes ofwrite requests RQ0 to RQ3;

FIG. 11B is an explanatory drawing of an example of updated states ofthe storage information of the address conversion table (ATT) and thenon-volatile memory devices (NVM) at the data writing operation in thememory module, which shows the state corresponding to the processes ofwrite requests RQ4 to RQ9;

FIG. 12 is a drawing showing an example of a process flow of a memorymodule corresponding to a second smoothing method in a system of asecond embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is an explanatory drawing of an example of a pipeline writingoperation of the memory module in a system of a third embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 14 is a drawing showing an example of a process flow of a datareading operation of the memory module in each of the embodiments of thepresent invention;

FIG. 15 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration example of acontrol circuit of a memory module in a system of a fourth embodiment ofthe present invention; and

FIG. 16 is a drawing showing the characteristics (relation between thepulse width and temperature required for phase change) in a resistiveelement (phase-change memory cell) using a phase-change material as anexample of conventional techniques.

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, non-volatile memory devices, a memory module (semiconductordevice) including the non-volatile memory devices and a control circuit,an information processing system including the memory module and aninformation processing device, a controlling method relating to datawrite to the non-volatile memory devices in the device and system andothers will be described as embodiments of the present invention withreference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 16.

<Characteristics>

The present invention and the embodiments have the configurationincluding the following characteristic elements.

(A) Basic System (Data Writing System):

The semiconductor device (memory module) employs a following system(configuration) in relation to the control of processing operationsincluding data write from a control circuit to a memory device(non-volatile memory device). As the memory device, for example, aresistance-change-type non-volatile storage device such as aphase-change memory is employed. In this case, the device has theabove-described characteristics {(1) the upper limit for the number oftimes of write, (2) the sizes of write and erase are mutually the same,(3) overwritable, (4) variation in the resistance values of write memorycells, and others}. The control circuit receives requests/instructionsof data write or read from an information processing device (host) andcontrols the processing operations of data write and read with respectto the memory device.

In this system, even if a data overwrite request is given (even if thememory device has an overwritable format) in the data write from thecontrol circuit to the memory device, a data overwriting operation isnot carried out, and data write is realized by a set of two types ofoperations such as (a) [erasing operation/invalidating operation] withrespect to a first region/address and (b) [writing operation/validatingoperation] with respect to a second region/address as described below.More specifically, in (a) [erasing operation/invalidating operation], anoperation of once setting the state of a memory cell of the data of thecorresponding first region/address of the memory device to an amorphousor crystalline state (“erasing operation”) or an operation of setting aflag value corresponding to the state (erase state) (“invalidatingoperation”) is carried out. In addition, in (b) [writingoperation/validating operation], an operation of writing write data tothe memory cell of a second region/address which is different from theabove-described first region/address (“writing operation”) or anoperation of setting a flag value corresponding to the state (writestate) (“validating operation”) is carried out.

For example, the “erasing operation” is the operation of resetting theinformation bits (resistance values) of memory cells to the same value,the “invalidating operation” is the operation of changing the flag valuecorresponding to the first region/address to 0, the “writing operation”is the operation of setting the information bits of the memory cell to 0or 1 in accordance with the write data, and the “validating operation”is the operation of changing the flag value corresponding to the secondregion/address to 1.

(B) Unit and Size:

The control circuit and others carry out management of addressinformation by the unit of a predetermined size so that the size of thedata erasing unit in the above-described (a) [erasing operation] and thesize of the data writing unit in the above-described (b) [writingoperation] are equal to each other, and control the data erase, write,and others with respect to the memory device by the unit. As theabove-described units, the control circuit carries out management of theaddress information of each unit, for example, the unit of physicaladdress region (sector) of the memory device and the unit (physicalsegment) by the gathering of a plurality of sequential physical addressregions (sectors) (for example, physical address table and physicalsegment table).

(C) Flag Information:

The control circuit and others carry out information management for theabove-described operations of (a) and (b). For every region of a unitsuch as a physical address in the memory device, the control circuitcarries out management of flag information, which represents thevalid/invalid state of the region and the data stored therein. Then, inthe above-described operation of (a)+(b), for example, if thecorresponding data of a first region is erased/invalidated in theoperation (a), the control circuit changes the corresponding flag valueto 0, and if write data is written to a second region in the operation(b), it changes the corresponding flag value to 1.

(D) Count Information:

The control circuit and others carry out information management of theerase count (or write count) of data for each region of a unit such as aphysical address in all the memory regions. For example, the erase countis incremented at every execution of the above-described (a) [erasingoperation]. Alternatively, the write count is incremented at everyexecution of the (b) [writing operation]. Note that, since (a) and (b)correspond to each other as a set, the concept of the erase count andthe concept of the write count correspond to each other.

(E) First Table:

The control circuit and others select (determine) an address/region tobe the target (destination) to which data is to be written next by usingthe information of the above-described count and flag so as to suppressand smooth variation in the usage (erase or write) in all the memoryregions. The control circuit carries out management of the addressinformation (for example, physical address information) for selectingthe above-described write destination (for example, first table: writephysical address table). The information of the above-described countand flag is managed in association with every address/region.Particularly, the processing speed is increased by providing the firsttable in the control circuit.

For example, in preparation for a data write request in the future, thecontrol circuit registers information such as candidates of the addressof the next write destination or a plurality of physical addresses to beused preferentially to the first table in advance and updates theinformation as needed. For example, when the address information isregistered to the above-described first table, the control circuitpreferentially registers, for example, the physical address at which theabove-described count for each address/region is small and theabove-described flag value is 0 (invalid). For example, the controlcircuit compares a value such as the erase count with a predeterminedthreshold value, and registers the address/region having the valuesmaller than the threshold value. For example, the addresses of thephysical segment (corresponding physical addresses) having the minimumerase count are registered.

In the next data write, the control circuit references the informationof the first table and particularly selects (determines) the addresswhose count is small and flag value is 0 (invalid) so as to allocate anduse the selected address as the address (second region/address) of thenext write destination. In this manner, variations in the usage (eraseand write) of the whole memory regions are suppressed and smoothed. Forexample, with respect to a plurality of data write requests, the controlcircuit selects and uses a plurality of addresses in a descending order(priority order) from the information of the plurality of addressesregistered in the first table.

(F) Sequential Address Allocation:

The control circuit carries out information management and control so asto write data to sequential addresses (for example, physical addresses)in a memory region. When the control circuit selects (determines) theaddress/region of the above-described next data write destination andcarries out (a) the [erasing operation] of the first region and (b) the[writing operation] of the second region, for example, the controlcircuit sequentially allocates and uses addresses in the order of thephysical address values from among the plurality of physical addressesof the whole memory region. For example, when all of the physicaladdress values are used from the beginning to the end, it returns to theinitial physical address value to repeatedly use the address values inthe same manner. Particularly, even in the case in which an unusedsecond region is to be selected with respect to a used first region inthe above-described set operation, addresses which are sequential in thefirst and second regions are used. For example, from the start of use ofthis device, the memory region is kept being used by the sequentialaddresses in the above-described manner. As described above, the use(erase and write) of the memory region is smoothed.

(G) Logical Address—Physical Address:

The control circuit and others carry out information management (forexample, address conversion table) of the correspondence relation(allocation) of a logical address in a request from an externalinformation processing device (host) and a physical address of thememory device. Particularly, the size of physical address space isconfigured to be larger than the size of logical address space. Forexample, in the above-described (a) operation, only update (change from1 to 0) of the flag value of the first region is carried out as theinvalidating operation, and a data deleting process of the first regionis carried out as the erasing operation later in terms of time.

(H) Various Tables:

The control circuit retains and manages table information forabove-described various types of information management in the memorydevice provided in the control circuit or in the memory device providedoutside the control circuit and inside the memory module. For example,the control circuit retains a table for the management of information ofthe physical addresses, the physical segments, the flags, and thecounts, a table for the management of the correspondence relation(conversion) of the logical addresses and the physical addresses, afirst table for selecting the next write destination address, andothers.

Also, the control circuit carries out management of information, whichhas the contents corresponding to the above-described table informationretained on the control circuit side, by storing the information in theregion of the memory device side, for example, in each region of a unitof a physical address or the like.

(I) Processing Example:

With respect to a data write request (for example, including logicaladdress, write data, size, and others) from the information processingdevice (host), the control circuit references the above-describedmanagement information (tables) to read the physical address, which isassociated with (allocated to) the logical address, and information suchas a flag and count, and then selects (determines) the physical address(second address/region), which is to be the write destination of thewrite data. For example, if it is a data write request (overwriterequest) to the physical address (first region) of the memory devicewhich is in a data stored state (flag value is 1 (valid)), the controlcircuit selects (determines), as a next write destination, a sequentialphysical address (second region), which is different from theabove-described address and in a state in which data is newly writable(flag value is 0 (invalid)) from among the plurality of addresses of thefirst table. When the above-described next address (second region) isselected, the control circuit carries out (a) [erasingoperation/invalidating operation] to the data of the above-describedfirst region and also carries out (b) [writing operation/validatingoperation] of the write data to the above-described next address (secondregion).

(J) Pipeline Process:

The control circuit carries out a pipeline process of: a firstprocessing unit/operation in which a data write request and write datafrom the information processing device (host) are transferred (stored)to a predetermined buffer memory device provided in the control circuit(or outside the control circuit and inside the memory module); a secondprocessing unit/operation in which a process of predetermined advancepreparation (including at least determination of the address of the nextwrite destination) for writing the above-described write data to theaddress of the next write destination of the memory device is carriedout; and a third processing unit/operation in which the write data ofthe above-described buffer memory device is written to the address ofthe next write destination of the memory device.

In the above-described pipeline process, the (a) [erasing operation] andthe (b) [writing operation] may be separately carried out in mutuallydifferent pipeline processing units.

(K) Configuration Example:

The semiconductor device which is the memory module of the presentinvention (MM0) includes, for example, a control circuit device (SC0), aplurality of non-volatile memory devices (NVM), and a random accessmemory (RM). A first table which stores the address information of thenext write destination is retained in the control circuit device (SC0).In the random access memory (RM), a second table which stores managementinformation such as the physical addresses of the non-volatile memorydevice (NVM), management information of corresponding flags and counts,management information of the correspondence relation (conversion)between the logical address information of a data write request and thephysical address information of the non-volatile memory device (NVM),and others is retained. The control circuit device (SC0) has aninterface circuit with the information processing device (CC), aninformation processing circuit, a buffer memory device, a memorycontrolling circuit, and others.

(L) Second Smoothing Method:

The control circuit obtains the difference between the maximum erasecount of the physical addresses in the invalid state (0) and the minimumerase count of the physical addresses in the valid state (1). When thedifference is larger than a predetermined threshold value, in order toreduce such a difference (in order to smooth the erase counts), thecontrol circuit moves the data of the physical address having themaximum erase count relating to the physical address in the valid state(1) to the physical address of the maximum erase count relating to thephysical address in the invalid state (0).

(M) Initialization:

For example, at the start of use of the device or immediately afterpower-on (at the start-up), the control circuit initializes the contentsof the tables of the management information stored in the controlcircuit and the random access memory and initializes the contents of themanagement information stored in the non-volatile memory device. Also,at the end of activation (immediately before power-off), the controlcircuit saves each table information in the non-volatile memory device.Further, at the activation, the control circuit reads and reproduces thetable information saved in the non-volatile memory device and starts thecontrol from the state continued from the previous time.

First Embodiment

An information processing system of the first embodiment will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 11. The first embodiment hasa configuration including a first smoothing method (dynamic smoothingmethod) relating to the data erasing operations (erase count (EC)) ofeach of physical addresses (PA) of a non-volatile memory device NVM(phase-change memory PM) The smoothing means the act of suppressing andsmoothing variations in the data erasing operations of NVM regions.

[System]

FIG. 1 shows a block configuration example of the information processingsystem of the first embodiment. This information processing system hasthe configuration in which an information processing device CC and amemory module MM0 are connected to each other. In the presentembodiment, the information processing device CC is a host controller(for example, CPU chip), which carries out management of the data read,written, and saved from/to the memory module MM0 by logical addresses LAhaving a minimum unit of 512 bytes. The memory module MM0 is asemiconductor device, which is a non-volatile storage device.

The information processing device CC carries out read and write of datawith respect to the memory module MM0 through interface signals HDH_IF.Read requests RQ, write requests WQ, and the like in which clockinformation is embedded and which has been converted to serial data areinput from the information processing device CC to the memory module MM0through the interface signals HDH_IF. The signal system that connectsthe information processing device CC and the memory module MM0 to eachother is, for example, a serial interface signal system, a parallelinterface signal system, or an optical interface signal system, and allof the systems can be applied. Also, the clock system that operates theinformation processing device CC and the memory module MM0 is, forexample, a common clock system, a source synchronous clock system, or anembedded clock system, and all of the clock systems can be applied. Inthe present embodiment, operation examples using the embedded clocksystem and the serial interface signal system will be described.

The read request RQ includes a logical address (value) LA, a data readcommand RD, a sector count SEC, and others, and the write request WQincludes a logical address (value) LA, a data write command WT, a sectorcount SEC, write data WDATA, and others.

The memory module MM0 has the configuration including a plurality of(eight in this example) non-volatile memory devices NVM {NVM10 toNVM17}, a random access memory RM, and a control circuit SC0 whichcontrols these memories. The control circuit SC0 can be also referred toas, for example, a storage controller.

The non-volatile memory device NVM of the present embodiment employs aphase-change memory PM (FIG. 3) described later. The plurality of(eight) non-volatile memory devices NVM10 (#1) to NVM17 (#8) have thesame configuration and performance in this example.

A write physical address table NXPAT (FIG. 7) described later and othersare stored in the control circuit SC0. Also, a physical address tablePAT (FIG. 5), a physical segment tables PST {PST1, PST2} (FIG. 6), anaddress conversion table ATT (FIG. 8) described later, and others arestored in the random access memory RM. Since the tables of various typesof management information are provided in the control circuit SC0 andthe random access memory RM, efficiency of processes such as addressdetermination can be improved.

[Control Circuit]

FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the control circuit SC0. Thecontrol circuit SC0 has the configuration including an interface circuitHIF, buffers BUF {BUF0 to BUF3} (buffer memory devices), a bootingnon-volatile memory device NVM0, a write physical address table NXPAT,an arbitration circuit ARB, an information processing circuit MNG,memory controlling devices NC {NC0 to NC7} which directly control NVM{NVM10 to NVM17}, respectively, and a memory controlling device RMCwhich directly controls the random access memory RM. In theconfiguration example of FIG. 2, the plurality of (four) buffers BUF{BUF0 to BUF3} are provided.

The information processing circuit MNG carries out management of thewrite physical address table NXPAT in the control circuit SC0 and alsocarries out management of the physical address table PAT, the physicalsegment tables PST, the address conversion table ATT, and others in therandom access memory RM.

[Non-Volatile Memory Device NVM (Phase-Change Memory PM)]

FIG. 3 shows a block configuration example of the phase-change memoryPM, which is an example used as the non-volatile memory device NVM{NVM10 to NVM17} of FIG. 1 in the present embodiment. The phase-changememory PM has a configuration including a clock generating circuit SYMD,a status register STREG, an address/command interface circuit ADCMDIF,an input/output buffer IOBUF, a control circuit CNTLOGIC, a temperaturesensor THMO, a data controlling circuit DATACTL, a plurality of memorybanks BK {BK0 to BK3}, and others. Each of the memory banks BK has aconfiguration including a plurality of memory arrays ARY {ARY0 to m}, arow address latch RADLT, a column address latch CADLT, a row decoderROWDEC, a column decoder COLDEC, a data selecting circuit DSW1, databuffers DBUF0 and DBUF1, and others. Each of the memory arrays ARY has aconfiguration including a plurality of memory cells c (phase-change-typememory elements), bit-line selecting circuits BSW, sense amplifiers SA,write drivers WDR, and others.

Control signals CTL input to the address/command interface circuitADCMDIF include such signals as command latch enable signals CLE, chipenable signals CEB, address latch signals ALE, write enable signals WEB,read enable signals REB, ready/busy signals RBB, and others. As theinput/output signals (IO signals) (8 bits) input to the input/outputbuffer IOBUF, command, address, and write data are input, and read datais output.

The circuit elements constituting each block in the present embodimentare formed on one semiconductor substrate such as single-crystal siliconby, for example, publicly-known integrated circuit techniques of CMOS(complementary MOS transistor). Furthermore, like the above-describedphase-change memory PM, a resistive storage element is used as thememory cell (ReRAM or the like may be used) (the characteristics thereofare similar to those of FIG. 16). The non-volatile memory device NVM isnot limited to the above-described phase-change memory PM, and othertype of memory device having the characteristics similar to thosedescribed above can be applied.

[Initial Sequence]

FIG. 4 shows an initial sequence example at the power-on (on) of theinformation processing system (FIG. 1). In a period t1 (PwOn), power isturned on to the information processing device CC and the non-volatilememory devices NVM {NVM10 to NVM17}, the random access memory RM, andthe control circuit SC0 in the memory module MM0.

In a period t2 (Reset), the information processing device CC, thecontrol circuit SC0, the non-volatile memory devices NVM {NVM10 toNVM17}, and the random access memory RM and the internal state thereofare reset (initialized). The method of this resetting is notparticularly limited, but may be a method in which the reset isautomatically carried out by respective built-in circuits, a method inwhich a reset terminal is provided outside to carry out a resettingoperation by reset signals (FIG. 1, RSTSIG, RESET) thereof, or a methodin which the reset is carried out by inputting a reset command from theinformation processing device CC to the control circuit SC0 through theinterface signal HDH_IF.

The control circuit SC0 initializes the address conversion table ATT,the physical segment tables PST1 and PST2, and the physical addresstable PAT stored in the random access memory RM (FIG. 1), andfurthermore, initializes the non-volatile memory devices NVM (storageinformation) and the write physical address table NXPAT.

In a period t3 (Setup) after the end of the period t2, the informationprocessing device CC reads a boot program stored in the bootingnon-volatile memory NVM0 in the control circuit SC0 and starts up theinformation processing device CC.

In a period t4 (Idle) after the end of the period t3 and thereafter, thememory module MM0 becomes an idle state to wait for the requests fromthe information processing device CC.

For example, at the start of use of the device or immediately afterpower-on (at the start-up), the control circuit SC0 initializes thecontents of the tables (PAT, PST, ATT) like in t1 and t2 describedabove, and furthermore, initializes the storage information in thenon-volatile memory devices NVM and the contents of the write physicaladdress table NXPAT in the control circuit SC0. In the initializationprocess, for example in the case of start of device use, 0 is set as thevalues as shown in FIG. 7A, FIG. 8, and others.

Moreover, at the end of activation (immediately before power-off), thecontrol circuit SC0 saves above-described table information in thenon-volatile memory devices NVM. Also, at the activation, the controlcircuit SC0 reads and reproduces the table information saved in NVM andstarts control from the state continued from the previous time.

[Physical Address Table PAT]

FIG. 5 shows a configuration example of the physical address table PATstored in RM. PAT has a configuration including physical addresses PA(PA [31:0]) and valid flags VF and erase counts EC corresponding to thephysical addresses PA. In the present embodiment, the physical addressesPA (PA [31:0]) (32 bits) are configured to have physical segmentaddresses PSA (PA [31:20]) of higher 12 bits and physical addresses (PA[19:0]) of lower 20 bits (referred to as PPA for distinguishment from PAof 32 bits).

The value of the valid flag VF is 0 or 1. Here, 0 represents “invalid”(invalid state), and 1 represents “valid” (valid state). The invalidity(0) can also be associated with the meaning of “address unallocated”,“next write usable” (data erasable), initial state, and others. Thevalidity (1) can also be associated with the meaning of “addressallocated”, “next write unusable” (data not erasable), and others. Theact of changing 0 to 1 is defined as “validating”, and the act ofchanging from 1 to 0 is defined as “invalidating”.

In the present embodiment, management is carried out so that thephysical address PA of the valid flag VF=0 (invalid) serves as aninvalid physical address IPA and the physical address PA of VF=1 (valid)serves as a valid physical address VPA.

The erase count EC (Erase Count) represents the number of times of thedata erasing operation which has been carried out by that time in unitof the region of a corresponding physical address PA (or the number oftimes of the corresponding data write operation which has been carriedout). For example, the erase count EC is cumulatively incremented atevery data erasing operation by the control circuit SC0 from EC=0 at thestart of use of NVM.

[Physical Segment Table PST]

FIG. 6 shows configuration examples of physical segment tables PST{PST1, PST2} stored in RM. PST is a management table relating to thephysical segment addresses PSA (FIG. 5), FIG. 6A shows the physicalsegment table PST1 relating to the invalid physical addresses IPA, andFIG. 6B shows the physical segment table PST2 relating to the validphysical addresses VPA.

In FIG. 6A, the physical segment table PST1 is configured to have thephysical segment address PSA (PA [31:20]), a total number TNIPA of theinvalid physical addresses IPA in the PSA, an invalid physical addressIPAmax having a maximum erase count ECmax in the invalid physicaladdresses IPA in the PSA, the maximum erase count ECmax, an invalidphysical address IPAmin having a minimum erase count ECmin in theinvalid physical addresses IPA in the PSA, and the minimum erase countECmin.

In FIG. 6B, the physical segment table PST2 is configured to have thephysical segment address PSA (PA [31:20]), a total number TNVPA of thevalid physical addresses VPA in the PSA, a valid physical address VPAmaxhaving a maximum erase count ECmax in the valid physical addresses VPAin the PSA, the maximum erase count ECmax, a valid physical addressVPAmin having a minimum erase count ECmin in the valid physical addressVPA in the PSA, and the minimum erase count ECmin.

The erase count EC in a segment unit is also managed according to thetotal sum of the EC of the plurality of sectors. As shown in the exampleof TNVPA, the number of VPA (TNVPA) is obtained by subtracting thenumber of IPA (TNIPA) from N sectors (PA) constituting one segment.

[Unit/Size]

The configuration examples of various units and sizes used in thepresent embodiment will be summarized below. In the region of NVM (PM)of FIG. 1, “one physical address PA region” is equal to “1 sector”, andis equal to “512 bytes”. The region of one physical segment address PSAis a unit of sequential gathering of PA (sectors) corresponding to 20bits (2048) and is one megabyte (2048×512 bytes). As shown in FIG. 5 andFIG. 6, the physical segment addresses PSA (0 to FFF) corresponding to12 bits (4096) are provided, and the physical addresses PA (0 to F_FFFF)corresponding to 20 bits are provided.

In this system, the data sizes of (a) [erasing operation] and (b)[writing operation] are equal to each other and are, for example, in theunit of sector or segment (arbitrarily changeable). Also, units such aspage and block of a NAND-type flash memory or the like are not used inthis system. Units (names) such as sector and segment can also bereferred to as other units (names) in accordance with the memory to beapplied.

With respect to the space of a logical address LA (particularly, storageaddress) viewed from the information processing device CC (host), thespace of the physical address PA of NVM of FIG. 1 is associated by usingthe address conversion table ATT. Particularly, the size of the PA spaceis configured to ensure allowance with respect to the size of the LAspace. By virtue of this, the efficiency of the erasing operation andthe like is improved by using the PA region corresponding to theallowance. For example, by setting VF=0 (invalid) in the PA regioncorresponding to the allowance, the erasing operation and the writingoperation of data can be asynchronously carried out. For example, the PAregion which has been previously invalidated (VF=0) can be subjected toa data erasing operation later.

[Write Physical Address Table NXPAT]

FIG. 7 shows the write physical address table NXPAT stored in thecontrol circuit SC0. FIG. 7A shows an example of the initial setting ofNXPAT at the start of use of device. FIG. 7B shows an example of anupdated state of the contents of NXPAT. NXPAT is the table used in thewriting of data to the non-volatile memory devices NVM {NVM10 to NVM17}for determining (selecting) the physical address PA (NXPA) of NVM to beused next. NXPAT corresponds to the registration of the information of aplurality of (N) sets of physical addresses PA (NXPA).

NXPAT is configured to have entry numbers ENUM, the physical addressesNXPA (32 bits), and valid flags NXVF and erase counts NXEC correspondingto the NXPA. The entry number ENUM represents the N value (0-th toN−1-th) in the plurality of (N) sets of NXPA, and the N value representswrite priority (the number of registration). The addresses arepreferentially used in the ascending order of the N value. The valuesbased on the information of PAT of FIG. 5 are stored as NXPA, NXVF, andNXEC.

In the initial setting (for example, t1 of FIG. 4) of NXPAT of FIG. 7A,a location number 0 to a location number N−1 of the physical addressesNXPA are set in the order from ENUM=0 to N−1, respectively. Also, thevalid flags NXVF and the erase counts NXEC corresponding to thesephysical addresses NXPA are all set to 0. Also in this case, the erasecount NXEC at the start of use of device is set to 0 in the same manneras EC of PAT.

[Maximum Write Size, N Value]

In the present embodiment, aside from the data size of (b) [writingoperation] (for example, 1 sector=512 bytes), the maximum size which canbe written at one time from the control circuit CS0 to the memory cellgroup of NVM (“maximum write size”) is, for example, [the size of bufferper chip]×[the number of parallel chips] of NVM of FIG. 3=M×512 bytes(sector). For example, M=16×8=128 (corresponding to 128 physicaladdresses PA). In order to support the configuration in which data writecorresponding to M sectors can be carried out at one time in parallel inthis manner, write physical address information corresponding to atleast N=M is preferably registered/retained in the write physicaladdress table NXPAT.

[Address Conversion Table ATT, NVM Information]

FIG. 8A shows a configuration example of the address conversion tableATT stored in RM. FIG. 8B shows the information stored on thenon-volatile memory device NVM side so as to correspond to the contentsof ATT of FIG. 8A. FIGS. 8A and 8B show examples of the initial settingstate at the start of use of NVM. ATT is a table used for converting thelogical addresses LA, which have been input (specified) from theinformation processing device CC to the control circuit SC0, to thephysical addresses PA of the non-volatile memory devices NVM, and thecorresponding relations between LA and PA are set therein.

The address conversion table ATT is configured to have the logicaladdresses LA, the physical addresses PA (current physical address CPA),valid flags VF of the PA (valid flag CVF corresponding to CPA), andothers. The valid flag values VF (CVF) are similar to VF of FIG. 5. VF=0(invalid) represents the state in which PA is not allocated to the LA(unallocated), and VF=1 (valid) represents the state in which the PA isallocated to the LA (allocated).

In the initial setting at the start of use of NVM (for example, t1 ofFIG. 4), as shown in FIG. 8A, all PA of ATT and the valid flags VF ofthe PA are set to 0.

The information of the non-volatile memory devices NVM {NVM10 to NVM17}of FIG. BE is configured to have the physical addresses PA, data DATA,the logical addresses LA, data valid flags DVF (DVF information storageregion), and others. The information having the contents correspondingto those on the ATT side is stored as the NVM information. Theabove-described DATA is the region (data storage region) correspondingto PA. The above-described LA is an LA information storage region. Theabove-described DVF is the storage region of the DVF informationcorresponding to the PA and DATA. DVF on the NVM side has acorrespondence relation with VF on the ATT side. Since managementinformation is stored/managed in the non-volatile memory devices NVM,efficiency of processes such as address determination can be improved.

In the initial setting at the start of use of NVM (for example, t1 ofFIG. 4), as shown in FIG. 8B, all DATA, all LA, and all DVFcorresponding to all PA are set to 0 in the NVM information.

After the use of NVM is started, the information relating todata-written (stored) PA is saved in the table information when power isturned on.

[Write Request]

Examples of data write to the non-volatile memory device NVM in the casein which the write request WQ is input from the information processingdevice CC to the memory module MM0 through the interface signal HDH_IFwill be described below.

In the sector count SEC contained in WQ, each one physical address PAregion (=1 sector=512 bytes) corresponds to one count, and this is theinformation that specifies how many times the data write in the sectorunit is to be repeated. For example, in the case of SEC=1, thisrepresents data write having a size of 512 bytes.

As an operation example, if the write request WQ of SEC=1 is input Ntimes (WQ#1 to WQ#N), the data (WDATA) contained in the respective writerequests WQ is written to the N physical address PA regions (sectors) ofNVM. PA used therefor is selected (determined) from the physicaladdresses NXPA registered in the write physical address table NXPAT. Forexample, write is carried out sequentially to the regions of thelocation number 0 to the location number N−1 of the N NXPA of NXPAT(FIG. 7A).

As another operation example, for example, if the write request WQhaving SEC=16 (=8 Kbytes) is input one time, the data (WDATA) containedin the write request WQ is decomposed as the N(=16) write data eachhaving 512 bytes for the physical address PA regions (sectors) of NVMand is then stored into the N(=16) PA regions (sectors). PA usedtherefor is selected from N NXPA of NXPAT, and write is carried outsequentially to the regions of, for example, the location number 0 tothe location number N−1.

[Data Writing Process]

FIG. 9 shows an example of the process flow of a data writing operationcarried out by MM0 (SC0) when the write request WQ is input from theinformation processing device CC to the control circuit SC0 of thememory module MM0. In the present embodiment, the information processingcircuit MNG in SC0 writes the write data (WDATA) into the plurality of(eight) NVM {NVM10 to NVM17} (memory regions) for each physical addressPA region (sector) having the size of 512 bytes described above. Forexample, a write request WQ01 is assumed to contain a logical addressvalue LA=0, a data write command WT, a sector count SEC=1, and writedata WDATA (WDATA01) which is in the 512-byte unit. In FIG. 9, a partthat mainly carries out the processes is SC0 (MNG). Also, FIG. 9 showsthe example of the process in the case in which the number of the writephysical address table NXPAT provided in the control circuit SC0 is one(FIG. 2).

(Step 101) When the write request WQ (WQ01) is input, the interfacecircuit HIF obtains the clock information embedded in WQ, converts WQ,which has been processed into serial data, to parallel data, andtransfers the data to the buffer BUF0 and the information processingcircuit MNG.

(Step 102) Then, the information processing circuit MNG decodes LA (=0),WT, and SEC(=1) of the above-described WQ (WQ01) and reads theinformation of the current physical address value CPA (=0) stored tocorrespond to the location number LA=0 in the information (ATT, PST,PAT) of the random access memory RM, the valid flag value VF (CVF) (forexample, 0) corresponding to the value CPA (=0), and the information ofthe erase count value EC (for example, 500) thereof.

(Step 103) Then, SC0 (MNG) reads, from the write physical address tableNXPAT, the write physical address NXPA (for example, NXPA=100) and thevalues of NXVF and NXEC corresponding to the NXPA by the amountcorresponding to the number specified by the sector count SEC (forexample, one) in the descending order of write priority, in other words,in the ascending order of the ENUM value.

(Step 104) Then, SC0 (MNG) compares the current physical address valueCPA (for example: 0) of above-described Step 102 with the write physicaladdress NXPA (for example: 100) of above-described step 103. If they areequal to each other (Yes), the process goes to Step 107, and if they aredifferent from each other (No), the process goes to Step 105.

(Step 105) In the case of Step 105, SC0 (MNG) determines whether thevalid flag value CVF corresponding to the current physical address valueCPA (for example: 0) of Step 104 is 0 or not. The case of CVF=0 (Yes)represents that PA (CPA) (for example: 0) in NVM corresponding to thelogical address LA (for example: 0) is invalid, and the process goes toStep 107 because this represents that only the new physical address PA(NEWPA) (for example: 100) is present as the PA corresponding to the LA(for example: 0). The “new physical address (PA)” is defined as NEWPA.The case of CVF=1 (No) described above represents that the physicaladdress CPA (for example: 0) corresponding to the logical address LA(for example: 0) is valid (still valid), and therefore, the process goesto Step 106.

(Step 106) In Step 106, in order to write the write data WDATA01 to thenew physical address PA (NEWPA) (for example: 100) of NVM correspondingto the above-described logical address LA (for example: 0), SC0 (MNG)changes the valid flag value CVF corresponding to the current physicaladdress CPA (for example: 0) to 0 (invalid), and furthercorrespondingly, changes the valid flag VF of the physical address CPA(for example: 0) in the physical address table PAT to 0 (invalid). Afterinvalidating CPA corresponding to LA in Step 106 in this manner, theprocess goes to Step 107.

(Step 107) In Step 107, SC0 (MNG) writes the write data WDATA01 and thelogical address value LA (for example: 0) and the valid flag value VF(NXVF) (for example: 1) corresponding to the NXPA to the region of theabove-described physical address CPA=NXPA (for example: 100) in thenon-volatile memory device NVM {NVM10 to NVM17}.

(Step 108) Subsequently, in Step 108, SC0 (MNG) writes the informationof PA (NXPA) (for example: 100) and VF (CVF) (for example: 1)corresponding to LA (for example: 0) of NVM, which has been written inabove-described Step 107, to the region of the logical address LA (forexample: 0) of RM (ATT).

(Step 109) In next Step 109, MNG updates the contents of the physicaladdress table PAT in RM. More specifically, MNG generates a new erasecount value EC (NEWEC), which is obtained by increasing the erase countvalue NXEC corresponding to the physical address NXPA (for example: 100)by one, rewrites the erase count value EC corresponding to the physicaladdress PA (for example: 100) in PAT in RM so that the erase count valueEC becomes the above-described new erase count value NEWEC (in otherwords, increment of EC), and changes the valid flag VF of the PA to 1(valid).

(Step 110) In Step 110, SC0 (MNG) determines whether the write (use) toall of the N physical addresses NXPA registered in the write physicaladdress table NXPAT has been completed or not (whether there is anyentry of NXPA to be the candidate of use next is present or not).Particularly, if the write to all NXPA of NXPAT has been completed (noentry) (Yes), the process goes to Step 111, and if uncompleted (withentry) (No), the process returns to the beginning to wait for the writerequest WQ from the information processing device CC to the memorymodule MM0.

(Step 111) In Step 111, at the point when the write of all NXPA of NXPATdescribed above is completed, MNG obtains the information relating tothe physical segment address PSA (corresponding plural PA) in thephysical segment table PST by using the information of the valid flag VFand the erase count EC of PA of the physical address table PAT andupdates the physical segment table PST1 relating to the invalid physicaladdresses IPA. In other words, MNG obtains the values of TNIPA, IPAmax,ECmax, IPAmin, and ECmin described above in the PSA in PST1 and updatesPST1. Also, MNG obtains the values of TNVPA, VPAmax, ECmax, VPAmin, andECmin described above in the PSA in the physical segment table PST2relating to the valid physical addresses VPA and updates PST2 in thesame manner as that described above.

(Step 112) In step 112, MNG further updates the contents of the writephysical address table NXPAT (described later, FIG. 10 and others). Whenthe update of NXPAT in Step 112 is finished, the process returns to thebeginning to wait for the write request WQ from the informationprocessing device CC to the memory module MO.

[NXPAT Updating Process]

FIG. 10 shows an example of a process flow of update of the writephysical address table NXPAT corresponding to Step 112 of FIG. 9 andrequired for writing data to NVM by the information processing circuitMNG. In order to update NXPAT, MM0 has the flow of determining aphysical segment address PSA first and then determining a physicaladdress PA in the PSA. In the manner of PST1 and 2 of FIG. 6 describedabove, the random access memory RM stores information such as the totalnumber TNIPA of the invalid physical addresses IPA, the total numberTNVPA of the valid physical addresses VPA, the physical address IPAminor VPAmin having the minimum value ECmin of the erase count EC among IPAor VPA, and the minimum erase count ECmin for each physical segmentaddress PSA.

(Step 201) First, MNG reads information such as the total number TNIPAof invalid physical addresses, the invalid physical addresses IPA(corresponding PA) thereof, IPAmin, and ECmin for each physical segmentaddress PSA from RM (PST1, or the like).

(Step 202) Then, MNG selects, from above-described PSA, PSA(corresponding PA) that satisfy the condition that TNIPA read for eachPSA described above is larger than the registration number N of thewrite physical address table NXPAT (TNIPA>N).

(Step 203) Furthermore, MNG compares the minimum erase count valuesECmin of each of above-described selected PSA and obtains the minimumvalue among the ECmin (referred to as MINECmin).

(Step 204) Then, MNG determines the physical segment address PSA(referred to as TPSA) and the corresponding physical address PA(referred to as TPA) for updating the write physical address table NXPATfrom the physical seythent address PSA having the above-describedminimum value MINECmin and the corresponding physical address PA.

In order to cause the physical segment address PSA selected inabove-described Step 202 to exist, it is preferred that the size of thespace of the physical address (PA) in NVM is made to be equal to orlarger than the size of the space of the logical address (LA) by atleast the size corresponding to the address (corresponding to N) whichcan be registered in NXPAT.

(Step 205) Then, MNG reads, from RM, the erase count value ECcorresponding to the physical address TPA in the above-describedphysical segment address TPSA for update and compares the erase countvalue with a predetermined erase count threshold value (referred to asth1). If EC≦th1 (Yes), the write to the current physical address CPA(TPA) is permitted, and the process goes to Step 206. If EC>th1 (No),the above-described write is prohibited, and the process goes to Step209.

(Step 209) In Step 209, MNG determines whether the number (referred toas n1) of the invalid physical addresses IPA having the erase counts ECequal to or smaller than the erase count threshold value th1 in thecurrent physical segment address PSA is smaller than the number (N) ofthe addresses which can be registered in the write physical addresstable NXPAT (n1<N). If smaller (Yes), the process goes to Step 212. Iflarger, the process goes to Step 210.

(Step 210) In Step 210, a new sequential physical address CPA (TPA),which is obtained by adding 1 to the current physical address CPA (TPA),is generated, and the process goes to Step 205.

(Step 211) In Step 211, a new erase count threshold value th1, which isobtained by adding a predetermined value α to the erase count thresholdvalue th1, is generated, and the process returns to Step 205.

(Step 206) In Step 206, MNG registers, to the write physical addresstable NXPAT, the information of the current physical address CPA (TPA)and the information of the valid flag value VF and the erase count valueEC corresponding to the CPA (TPA). As shown in FIG. 7, N sets can beregistered in NXPAT, and in Step 206 in the present embodiment, theinformation corresponding to the N sets is registered in the ascendingorder of the entry numbers ENUM.

In the present embodiment, the above-described N value can bearbitrarily set by MNG, and particularly it is preferably set so thatthe write speed to the non-volatile memory devices NVM {NVM10 to NVM17}is maximized.

(Step 207) In next Step 207, MNG checks whether the registration of allof the N sets of information to the write physical address table NXPAThas been completed or not. If uncompleted (No), the process goes to Step209, and if completed (Yes), the process goes to Step 208.

(Step 208) In Step 208, MNG completes the update of the write physicaladdress table NXPAT.

[Update Example]

FIG. 11 shows examples of update states of the information of theaddress conversion table ATT and the non-volatile memory devices NVM{NVM10 to NVM17}. FIG. 11A shows the state after the control circuit SC0has written the data WDATA according to write requests WQ (WQ1 to WQ3)to NVM (after use of NVM is started) with respect to the initial stateof ATT and NVM of FIG. 8. Furthermore, FIG. 11B shows the state afterthe control circuit SC0 has written the data WDATA according to writerequests WQ (WQ4 to WQ9) to NVM subsequently to the state of FIG. 11A.Similar to FIG. 8, the values of the addresses, data, flags, and othersstored in ATT and NVM are shown.

In the example of FIG. 11A, first, for example four write requests WQ0,WQ1, WQ2, and WQ3 are input from the information processing device CC tothe control circuit SC0, and the data (WDATA0 to WDATA3) of these WQ({logical addresses LA, data write commands WT, sector counts SEC, writedata WDATA}) is written to NVM. The first write request WQ0 contains{LA=0, WT, SEC=1, WDATA0}. The second write request WQ1 contains {LA=1,WT, SEC=1, WDATA1}. The third write request WQ2 contains {LA=2, WT,SEC=1, WDATA2}. The fourth write request WQ3 contains {LA=3, WT, SEC=1,WDATA3}.

When above-described WQ0 to WQ3 are input to the control circuit SC0,the interface circuit HIF transfers these write requests WQ to thebuffer BUF0. Then, the information processing circuit MNG sequentiallyreads WQ0 to WQ3 stored in the buffer BUF0. Then, since the logicaladdress values LA of WQ0 to WQ3 are 0, 1, 2, and 3, respectively, MNGreads the corresponding physical address values PA (CPA) and valid flagvalues VF (CVF) from the location number 0, the location number 1, thelocation number 2, and the location number 3 of the logical addresses LAof the address conversion table ATT stored in RM through the memorycontrolling device RMC. At first, since all the read VF (CVF) are 0(invalid) as shown in FIG. 8, it can be understood that PA has not beenallocated to location numbers LA=0 to 3.

Then, MNG reads the physical address values NXPA (in this example,NXPA=0, 1, 2, 3 of FIG. 7A) stored from the number 0 to the number 3 ofthe entry numbers ENUM (four corresponding to four RQ) of the writephysical address table NXPAT (FIG. 7) and allocates the physical addressvalues NXPA to the location numbers 0 to 3 of the logical addresses LAas shown in LA and CPA of ATT of FIG. 11A.

Furthermore, in accordance with the above-described physical addressvalues NXPA (0 to 3), as shown in FIG. 11B, MNG writes the data WDATA0and the information of LA=0 and DVF=1 of the first write request WQ0 tothe region of the location number 0 of the physical address PA of thenon-volatile memory device NVM through the arbitration circuit ARB andthe memory controlling device NC {NC0 to NC7} (101) Similarly, WDATA1,LA=1, and DVF=1 of WQ1 are written to PA=1 (102), WDATA2, LA=2, DVF=1 ofWQ2 are written to PA=2 (103), and WDATA3, LA=3, DVF=1 of WQ3 arewritten to PA=3 (104).

In the end, as shown in FIG. 11A, in the manner corresponding to 101 to104 described above, MNG writes the physical address value CPA=0 and thevalid flag value CVF=1 with respect to the logical address LA=0 of theaddress conversion table ATT of RM through the memory controlling deviceRMC. Similarly, CPA=1 and CVF=1 are written to LA=1, CPA=2 and CVF=1 arewritten to LA=2, and CPA=3 and CVF=1 are written to LA=3.

FIG. 11B shows the state after six more write requests WQ4, WQ5, WQ6,WQ7, WQ8, and WQ9 are input from the information processing device CC tothe control circuit SC0 and the data (WDATA4 to WDATA9) of these WQ hasbeen written to NVM. The fifth write request WQ4 contains {LA=0, WT,SEC=1, WDATA4}. The sixth write request WQ5 contains {LA=1, WT, SEC=1,WDATA5}. The seventh write request WQ6 contains {LA=4, WT, SEC=1,WDATA6}. The eighth write request WQ7 contains {LA=5, WT, SEC=1,WDATA7}. The ninth write request WQ8 contains {LA=2, WT, SEC=1, WDATA8}.The tenth write request WQ9 contains {LA=3, WT, SEC=1, WDATA9}.

When the above-described six write requests WQ4 to WQ9 are input to thecontrol circuit SC0, the interface circuit HIF transfers these WQ to thebuffer BUF0. Then, the information processing circuit MNG sequentiallyreads WQ4 to WQ9 stored in the above-described buffer BUF0. Then, sinceLA of WQ4 to WQ9 are 0, 1, 4, 5, 2, and 3, respectively, MNG reads thephysical address values PA (CPA) and the valid flag values VF (CVF) fromthe location number 0, the location number 1, the location number 4, thelocation number 5, the location number 2, and the location number 3 ofLA of the address conversion table ATT of RM through the memorycontrolling device RMC.

Then, as shown in (1) to (6) below, [invalidating operation] (forexample, changing the data valid flag value DVF of NVM to 0) is firstcarried out.

(1) In relation to WQ4, the physical address value CPA=0 and the validflag value CVF=1 (valid, allocated) correspond to LA=0 of ATT as shownin FIG. 11A. First, in order to invalidate the data (WDATA0) of thephysical address PA=0 which has already been written, the informationprocessing circuit MNG sets 0 for DVF having PA=0 of NVM (update from 1to 0, 101 to 111).

(2) In relation to WQ5, CPA=1 and CVF=1 correspond to LA=1 of ATT, andin order to invalidate the data (WDATA1) of PA=1 which has already beenwritten, DVF of PA=1 of NVM is changed to 0 (102 to 112).

(3) Then, in relation to WQ6, CPA=0 and CVF=0 (invalid, unallocated)correspond to LA=4 of ATT as shown in FIG. 11A, and it can be understoodthat no physical address PA is allocated to LA=4 (105).

(4) In relation to WQ7, CPA=0 and CVF=0 correspond to LA=5 of ATT, andit can be understood that no physical address PA is allocated to LA=5(106).

(5) Then, in relation to WQ8, CPA=2 and CVF=1 correspond to LA=2 of ATT,and in order to invalidate the data (WDATA2) of PA=2 of NVM which hasalready been written, DVF of PA=2 of NVM is changed to 0 (103 to 113).

(6) In relation to WQ9, CPA=3 and CVF=1 correspond to LA=3 of ATT, andin order to invalidate the data (WDATA3) of PA=3 which has already beenwritten, DVF of PA=3 of NVM is changed to 0 (104 to 114).

After the above-described invalidating operation, the informationprocessing circuit MNG writes the data WDATA of WQ and the correspondinginformation to the regions of NVM in the manner described below.

Since the logical address values LA of above-described WQ4 to WQ9 are 0,1, 4, 5, 2, and 3, respectively, MNG reads the physical address valuesNXPA=4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 stored in the number 4 to number 9 of theentry numbers ENUM (six numbers corresponding to six WQ) of the writephysical address table NXPAT (FIG. 7) and allocates the NXPA to thelocation number 0, the location number 1, the location number 4, thelocation number 5, the location number 2, and the location number 3 ofLA like LA and CPA of FIG. 11B.

Furthermore, in accordance with the above-described physical addressvalues NXPA (4 to 9), MNG writes the data WDATA4, the logical addressvalue LA=0, and the data valid flag value DVF=1 of the write request WQ4to the region of the location number 4 of PA of the non-volatile memorydevice NVM {NVM 10 to 17} through the arbitration circuit ARB and thememory controlling device NC {NC0 to NC7} (115). Similarly, WDATA5,LA=1, DVF=1 of WQ5 are written to PA=5 (116), WDATA6, LA=4, and DVF=1 ofWQ6 are written to PA=6 (117), WDATA7, LA=5, and DVF=1 of WQ7 arewritten to PA=7 (118), WDATA8, LA=2, and DF=1 of WQ8 are written to PA=8(119), and WDATA9, LA=3, and DVF=1 of WQ9 are written to PA=9 (120).

[Erasing Operation+Writing Operation]

An example of the setting operation of (a) [erasingoperation/invalidating operation]+(b) [writing operation/validatingoperation] in the present system is as described below. In the case of adata writing operation corresponding to 1 PA (sector) of one time, forexample, in the case of writing to the address of a valid flag VF=0 suchas the new data writing, as a matter of course, the write is promptlycarried out without an erasing operation. If it is the write to theaddress of a valid flag VF=1 such as the case of an overwrite request,an invalidating operation (update of the VF (DVF) value (1 to 0)) anddata erase (reset of all bits) are carried out without overwriting ofthe first address region, and subsequently, an writing operation ofwrite data with respect to a sequential second address region (region ofthe next write physical address NXPA where VF=0) which is different fromthe first address region and a validating operation (update of the VF(DVF) value (0 to 1)) are carried out.

As a modification example, the order of [erasing operation] and [writingoperation] can be reversed with respect to the above-described settingoperation. Also, regarding [erasing operation], it is also possible tocarry out only invalidation (flag value update) first and then carry outdata erase (reset) later in terms of time as described above.

Since the present embodiment employs the phase-change memory PM, aresetting operation in which the state of each of all the memory cellsserving as data erase targets is set to an amorphous or crystallinestate is carried out in the [erasing operation]. The information valuesof all the memory cells are changed to ‘1’ by the resetting operation(FIG. 16).

[Effects and Others]

As described above, according to the first embodiment, theabove-described problems of NAND-type flash memories andresistance-change-type non-volatile memories (for example, life due tothe count upper limit, inefficiency of data write and the like,reliability of data read) can be remedied, and long-life, highreliability, high processing performance, and others can be realized bythe mechanism that suppresses and smoothes variations in the use(write/erase) of NVM regions by selecting (determining) the address(NXPA) of the next write destination of the non-volatile memory devicesNVM (phase-change memories PM) with respect to the data write request(WQ) from the information processing device CC based on management of,for example, the write physical address table NXPAT by the controlcircuit SC0.

Particularly, read processing performance can be improved and highreliability can be realized by the mechanism that equalizes the sizes oferase and write to realize data write by (a) [erasing operation]+(b)[writing operation] without carrying out overwriting operations to theoverwritable NVM (PM), thereby suppressing (uniformizing) variations inthe state (resistance value) of resistance-change-type memory cells.

Particularly, long life and high reliability can be realized by themechanism that suppresses and smoothes variations in the erase counts ECamong the memory regions by sequentially allocating the physicaladdresses PA of NVM to the logical addresses LA, which are from theinformation processing device CC, and using the allocated addresses(allocating and using sequential PA values without depending on LAvalues).

The NVM regions are sequentially used in, for example, the ascendingorder (0, 1, . . . ) of PA as shown in FIG. 11 from the start of use ofthe device (the erase count EC is increased one by one along with use).In addition, the data writing operations are realized by theinvalidating operations (111 to 114) and others and the data writingoperations (for example, 115 to 120) to the new physical addresses PAbased on NXPAT without carrying out overwriting operations (for example,101 to 104) with respect to the existing storage data of NVM. In thismanner, variations in writing/erasing with respect to the NVM regionsare suppressed and smoothed. The long life and others of NVM(phase-change memories PM) are realized by this smoothing.

Second Embodiment

An information processing system of the second embodiment will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 12 and others. The second embodimentshows a second smoothing method (static smoothing method) relating tothe data erasing operation (erase count EC) of each physical address PAof the non-volatile memory devices NVM (phase-change memories PM) In thesecond embodiment, the system configuration and others are similar tothose of the first embodiment (FIG. 1 and others), and the processingcontents in the control circuit SC0 and others are different.

The first smoothing method shown in FIG. 9, FIG. 10, and others of thefirst embodiment is a dynamic smoothing method of the erase counts ECwith respect to the invalid physical addresses IPA. In this dynamicsmoothing method, in relation to the erase counts EC of the NVM regions,the difference between the erase counts EC of the invalid physicaladdresses IPA and the erase counts EC of the valid physical addressesVPA is increased in some cases along with the use of the present memorymodule MM0. Therefore, the second embodiment (FIG. 12 and others) showsa static smoothing method that suppresses the above-described variations(differences) between EC of IPA and EC of VPA. In the second embodiment,in order to smooth the erase counts EC, a data moving operation (step306 and others of FIG. 12) between the physical addresses PA of NVM iscarried out. The valid physical address VPA having a small erase countEC among the valid physical addresses VPA means that the data withrespect to the logical address LA which is not frequently rewritten isretained. Therefore, data is moved (exchanged) between the validphysical address VPA regions with small erase counts EC and the invalidphysical address IPA regions with large erase counts EC, and invalidphysical address IPAnew regions with small erase counts EC are newlycreated. By this means, the subsequent data write is directed to theinvalid physical address IPAnew regions with the small erase counts EC,and the erase counts EC of respective physical addresses PA can besmoothed.

[Smoothing Method]

FIG. 12 shows a process flow which is executed by the control circuitSC0 (information processing circuit MNG) for suppressing and smoothingvariations in the erase counts EC of respective physical addresses PA ofthe non-volatile memory devices NVM (phase-change memories PM).

(Step 301) First, in Step 301, the information processing circuit MNGobtains the difference (referred to as a differential DIF1:DIF1=MAXECmax−MINECmin) between a maximum value MAXECmax among themaximum erase counts ECmax of the invalid physical addresses IPA in thephysical segment table PST1 of FIG. 6A and a minimum value MINECminamong the minimum erase counts ECmin of the valid physical addresses VPAin the physical segment table PST2 of FIG. 6B.

(Step 302) Then, in Step 302, MNG sets a predetermined threshold valueth2 relating to the difference (referred to as a differential DIF2)between the erase count EC of the invalid physical address IPA and theerase count EC of the valid physical address VPA and compares thedifferential DIF2 with the threshold value th2 (DIF2>th2). If thedifferential DIF2 is larger than the threshold value th2 (DIF2>th2), theprocess proceeds to next Step 303 in order to carry out smoothing of theerase counts EC, and if smaller (DIF2≦th2), the process proceeds to Step308.

(Step 308) In Step 308, MNG determines whether the physical segmenttable PST (PST1 or PST2) has been updated or not. If updated (Yes), theprocess returns to Step 301, and the differential DIF1 is obtainedagain. If neither one of the physical segment tables PST has beenupdated (No), Step 308 is carried out again.

(Step 303) In Step 303, MNG selects a physical segment address VPSAminthat has the smallest erase count EC among the minimum erase countsECmin relating to the valid physical addresses VPA in the physicalsegment table PST2, and further selects a plurality of (m) physicaladdresses PA (VPA) sequentially from the physical addresses PA havingsmall erase counts EC among the physical addresses PA in the selectedphysical segment address VPSAmin. These addresses serve as selectedvalid physical addresses SVPA {SVPA1 to SVPAm}.

(Step 304) In Step 304, MNG selects a physical segment address IPSAminhaving the smallest erase count EC among the maximum erase counts ECmaxrelating to the invalid physical addresses IPA in the physical segmenttable PST1, and further selects a plurality of (m) physical addresses PA(IPA) sequentially from the physical addresses PA having large erasecounts EC among the physical addresses PA in the selected physicalsegment address IPSAmin. These addresses serve as selected invalidphysical addresses SIPA {SIPA1 to SIPAm}.

(Step 305) In Step 305, MNG checks whether the selected invalid physicaladdresses SIPA {SIPA1 to SIPAm} of Step 304 described above areregistered in the write physical address table NXPAT or not. Ifabove-described SIPA are registered in NXPAT (Yes), the above-describedcurrent selected invalid physical addresses SIPA {SIPA1 to SIPAm} areexcluded from the candidates of the physical addresses PA having theminimum values in Step 309, and the process returns to Step 304. Ifabove-described SIPA are not registered in NXPAT (No), the processproceeds to Step 306.

(Step 306) In Step 306, MNG moves the data of the selected validphysical addresses SVPA {SVPA1 to SVPAm} of Step 303 described above tothe selected invalid physical addresses SIPA {SIPA1 to SIPAm} of Step304 described above.

(Step 307) In Step 307, all the tables which are required to be updatedas a result of moving the data of the selected valid physical addressesSVPA {SVPA1 to SVPAm} to the selected invalid physical addresses SIPA{SIPA1 to SIPAm} in Step 306 described above are updated.

In the above-described example, the data corresponding to m physicaladdresses PA is moved. The value m can be programmed (set) by theinformation processing circuit MNG in accordance with, for example,target performance, and 1≦m≦T is preferably set with respect to theregistration number N of NXPAT described above.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, long life andothers can be realized because of the mechanism that carries out datamovement so as to suppress and smooth the variations in EC of IPA andVPA of the NVM regions by the static smoothing method.

Third Embodiment

An information processing system of a third embodiment will be describedwith reference to FIG. 13 and others. In the configuration of the thirdembodiment, based on the configuration of the first or secondembodiment, a pipeline process relating to data write to thenon-volatile memory devices NVM by the memory module MM0 (controlcircuit SC0) is carried out.

[Pipeline Writing Operation]

FIG. 13 shows an example of a data writing operation in which a pipelineprocess is executed in the memory module MM0 in the case in which aplurality of write requests WQ are sequentially generated from theinformation processing device CC to the memory module MM0. On thehorizontal time axis, T0 and others represent the timing relating topipeline processing units (operations).

Also, in the configuration of the present embodiment, each of theplurality of buffers BUF {BUF0 to BUF3} (FIG. 2) of the control circuitSC0 can store the write data (WDATA) of N×512 bytes. Note that this “N”has a correspondence relation with the registration number N of NXPATdescribed above.

In FIG. 13, WTBUF represents a buffer transferring operation (transfer(storage) of data (WDATA) to the buffer BUF). As an example, in the fouroperations, that is, buffer transferring operations WTBUF0, WTBUF1,WTBUF2, and WTBUF3, write requests WQ (containing WDATA) are transferredto the buffers BUF0, BUF1, BUF2, and BUF3. For example, WTBUF0 iscarried out in the period from T0 to T2.

PREOP represents an advance preparation operation, which is apredetermined advance preparation operation (including correspondinginformation processing) for writing the write data (WDATA), which hasbeen transferred (stored) to the buffer BUF by WTBUF, to thenon-volatile memory device NVM. As an example, the four operations, thatis, advance preparation operations PREOP0, PREOP1, PREOP2, and PREOP3represent the advance preparation operations for writing the write data(WDATA), which has been transferred to the buffers BUF0, BUF1, BUF2, andBUF3, to NVM. For example, PREOP0 is carried out in the period from T1shortly after T0 to T3.

WTNVM represents a data writing operation, which is an operation ofwriting the write data (WDATA), which is stored in the buffer BUF in thePREOP-finished state, to the region of the non-volatile memory deviceNVM. As an example, the four operations, that is, the data writingoperations WTNVM0, WTNVM1, WTNVM2, and WTNVM3 represent the operation ofwriting the write data (WDATA), which is stored in the buffers BUF0,BUF1, BUF2, and BUF3 in the PREOP-finished state, to the NVM regions.For example, WTNVM0 is carried out in the period from T3 at the end ofPREOP0 to T5.

The three types of operations including the buffer transferringoperations WTBUF0 to WTBUF3, the advance preparation operations PREOP0to PREOP3, and the data writing operations WTNVM0 to WTNVM3 realize thepipeline operation by the control circuit SC0. Therefore, the writingspeed can be improved.

An example of details of the pipeline process of FIG. 13 correspondingto the configuration of the control circuit SC0 of FIG. 2 will bedescribed below. For example, a plurality of (N) write requests WQ (1)to WQ (N) generated in the period from T0 to T2 are first transferred tothe first buffer BUF0 by the interface circuit HIF (WTBUF0). When thefirst buffer BUF0 becomes the state in which the write data (WDATA)cannot be stored therein (for example, upper limit of the buffer size),a plurality of (N) write requests WQ (N+1) to WQ (2N) generated in thenext period from T2 to T4 are transferred to the second buffer BUF1(WTBUF1). When the second buffer BUF1 becomes the state in which thewrite data cannot be stored therein, a plurality of (N) write requestsWQ (2N+1) to WQ (3N) generated in the next period from T4 to T6 aretransferred to the third buffer BUF2 (WTBUF2). When the third bufferBUF2 becomes the state in which the write data cannot be stored therein,a plurality of (N) write requests WQ (3N+1) to WQ (4N) generated in thenext period from T6 to T8 are transferred to the fourth buffer BUF3(WTBUF3). Note that “N” described above has a correspondence relationwith the registration number N of NXPAT.

In the period from T1 to T3, the information processing circuit MNGcarries out the advance preparation operation PREOP0 for writing thewrite data (WDATA), which is stored in the buffer BUF0, to NVM. Anexample of the processing contents of the advance preparation operationPREOP0 carried out by the information processing circuit MNG will bedescribed below.

(1) By utilizing the logical address values LA contained in theabove-described write requests WQ (1) to (N), the physical addresses PAassociated with the LA are read from the address conversion table ATT,and the valid flag values VF (corresponding data valid flag values DVF)of these PA are changed to 0 in accordance with needs to invalidate thecorresponding data DATA.

(2) The address conversion table ATT is updated.

(3) The physical addresses NXPA stored in the write physical addresstable NXPAT are read, and the logical addresses LA contained in thewrite requests WQ (1) to (N) are allocated to the addresses NXPA.

(4) The physical segment tables PST (PST1, PST2) are updated.

(5) The physical address table PAT is updated.

(6) The write physical address table NXPAT is updated in order toprepare for the next write.

The other advance preparation operations PREOP1 to PREOP3 are alsosimilar to PREOP0 described above.

Then, in the period from T3 to T5, the information processing circuitMNG carries out the data writing operation WTNVM0 of writing the writedata (WDATA), which is stored in the buffer BUF0, to the non-volatilememory device NVM. In this process, the physical addresses PA of NVM towhich the data (WDATA) is written are equal to the physical addressvalues NXPA allocated in (3) described above.

The other data writing operations WTNVM1 to WTNVM3 are also similar toWTNVM0 described above.

When the data erasing operation of each PA region is to be carried out,the operation may be carried out in the advance preparation operationPREOP or in the data writing operation WTNVM. Alternatively, in thepipeline process, the data erasing operation may be separately carriedout in a different processing unit in above-described (a) [erasingoperation] and (b) [writing operation].

As described above, in the third embodiment, higher performance can berealized in addition to the effects of the above-described firstembodiment and others by the mechanism in which the control circuit SC0carries out the pipeline process of the operation of storing the writerequests WQ (WDATA) to the buffer BUF (WTBUF), the advance preparationoperation (PREOP) of write, and the operation of writing data (WTNVM) toNVM (phase-change memory).

<Data Reading Operation>

FIG. 14 shows an example of a process flow of a data reading operationcarried out by the memory module MM0 when a read request RQ (FIG. 1) isinput from the information processing device CC to the memory moduleMM0. This reading process is approximately the same in each of theembodiments.

(Step 401) For example, a read request RQ01 {logical address value LA(for example: 0), data reading command RD, sector count value SEC (forexample: 1)} is input from the information processing device CC to thecontrol circuit SC0. The reading target data is referred to as RDATA01.The interface circuit HIF takes out the clock information embedded inthe read request RQ01, converts the read request RQ01, which has beenprocessed into serial data, to parallel data, and transfers the data tothe buffer BUF0 and the information processing circuit MNG.

(Step 402) Then, the information processing circuit MNG decodes thelogical address value LA (for example: 0), the data reading command RD,and the sector count SEC (for example: 1) of RQ01 and reads the physicaladdress value PA (CPA) (for example: 0) stored in the location number 0of LA of the address conversion table ATT stored in RM and the validflag value CVF corresponding to this PA (CPA) (for example: 0).

(Step 403) Then, the information processing circuit MNG checks whetherthe above-described read valid flag value CVF is 1 or not.

(Step 405) The case of CVF=0 described above (No) represents that nophysical address PA is allocated to the location number 0 of LA, and nodata can be read from the non-volatile memory device NVM. Therefore, theinformation processing circuit MNG informs the information processingdevice CC through the interface circuit HIF that an error has occurred.

(Step 404) The case of CVF=1 described above (Yes) represents that thelocation number 0 of the physical address PA corresponds (is allocated)to the location number 0 of LA. Therefore, through the arbitrationcircuit ARB and the memory controlling devices NC {NC0 to NC7}, theinformation processing circuit MNG reads data (RDATA01) from thelocation number 0 of PA of the non-volatile memory device NVM {NVM10 toNVM17}. Furthermore, the read data (RDATA01) is transferred to theinformation processing device CC through the memory controlling deviceNC {NC0 to NC7}, the arbitration circuit ARB, the information processingcircuit MNG, and the interface circuit HIF.

Fourth Embodiment

FIG. 15 shows the configuration of a control circuit SC1 in a fourthembodiment. The control circuit SC1 is a modification example of thecontrol circuit SC0 of FIG. 2 and is different in that a plurality of(four) write physical address tables NXPAT0 to NXPAT3 are provided.Similar to FIG. 7, the information of the plurality of (N) physicaladdresses NXPA is registered in NXPAT0 to NXPAT3. In other words, thetotal registration number is N×4.

In the case in which the plurality of write physical address tablesNXPAT (NXPAT0 to NXPAT3) are provided like the control circuit SC1 ofthe fourth embodiment, MNG carries out management and an updatingprocess (similar to FIG. 10) of each of the tables NXPAT independently.Therefore, there are effects such as improvement in the transfer speedof write data to the plurality of non-volatile memory devices NVM {NVM10to NVM17}.

In the foregoing, the invention made by the inventor of the presentinvention has been concretely described based on the embodiments.However, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limitedto the foregoing embodiments and various modifications and alterationscan be made within the scope of the present invention.

For example, with respect to the method of allocating and using thephysical address PA values of the NVM regions, in the configurationdescribed above, the PA values of NVM are used from the beginning in theascending order (0, 1, . . . ) as shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 11 from thestart of use of the device, and when all of them are once used up tolast PA of NVM, the use is similarly repeated by returning to the firstPA (0). However, the order of starting the use of PA at first is notlimited to this. For example, the order may be the descending order ofPA, or for example, skipped (non-sequential) PA may be used. In anycases, similar effects (long life and others) achieved by theabove-described smoothing of the variations in the write/erase can besimilarly realized by the mechanism that registers the addresses (NXPA)having small erase counts EC or the like to NXPAT.

The information processing system (control circuit SC0) may carry outthe operation of erasing the stored data explicitly later in terms oftime for the above-described PA region, which has been subjected to theinvalidating operation. When the erasing operation is carried out later,since only update of the flag value is required in the writing, writingperformance is enhanced. Particularly, in the case of the configurationin which allowance is provided for the size of the PA space of NVM inconsideration of the size of the LA space, the erasing operation can beeasily carried out later in terms of time and is thus advantageous.

The management (update) of the erase counts EC can be carried out inaccordance with the timing of, for example, invalidating, thecorresponding data erasing operation, or data writing operation. In thismechanism, since the erasing operation and the writing operation are aset and have a correspondence relation in terms of the number of times,EC can be considered as the number of times of write. The counting of ECmay not be limited to the cumulative counting from the start of use ofMM0 (NVM). Even in the configuration in which the counting is startedover within a predetermined range, since the function of smoothing isachieved in that range, the corresponding effects of long life and thelike can be obtained.

The present invention can be utilized in, for example, a non-volatilememory device and an information processing system thereof.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A semiconductor device comprising: a non-volatilememory device; and a control circuit device that carries out access tothe non-volatile memory device, wherein the control circuit devicecarries out, with respect to a first write request from outsideincluding a first address serving as a first-type address and firstdata, control of allocating a second address serving as a second-typeaddress of the non-volatile memory device to the first-type addressindependently from the first-type address, wherein a fourth addressserving as the second-type address for a third address serving as thefirst-type address contained in a second write request input to thecontrol circuit device from outside is allocated during a first writingoperation of the first data to the second address of the non-volatilememory device, wherein the control circuit device is provided with afirst table which stores management information including thesecond-type address, wherein the control circuit device initializescontents of the management information in the first table of the controlcircuit device after power-on at a start of use or activation, whereinthe control circuit device stores the management information in thefirst table into the non-volatile memory device before power-off at anend of activation, and wherein the control circuit device reads themanagement information stored in the non-volatile memory device afterpower-on at activation and starts the control from a state continuedfrom previous time.
 22. The semiconductor device according to claim 21,further comprising: a random access memory, wherein the control circuitdevice carries out, with respect to the first write request from outsideincluding the first address serving as the first-type address and thefirst data, control of allocating the second-type address of thenon-volatile memory device stored in the first table to the first-typeaddress independently from the first-type address, wherein the randomaccess memory is provided with a second table which stores managementinformation including the first-type address and the second-type addressof the non-volatile memory device corresponding to the first-typeaddress, and wherein the control circuit device determines, with respectto a first read request from outside including a fifth address servingas the first-type address, a sixth address serving as the second-typeaddress corresponding to the fifth address with reference to the secondtable.
 23. The semiconductor device according to claim 22, wherein thecontrol circuit device initializes contents of the managementinformation in the second table of the control circuit device afterpower-on at a start of use or activation, wherein the control circuitdevice stores the management information in the second table into thenon-volatile memory device before power-off at an end of activation, andwherein the control circuit device reads the management information inthe second table stored in the non-volatile memory device after power-onat activation and starts the control from a state continued fromprevious time.
 24. The semiconductor device according to claim 22,wherein the control circuit device updates the management information inthe second table after a writing operation to the second-type address ofthe non-volatile memory device stored in the first table correspondingto the first-type address.
 25. The semiconductor device according toclaim 21, wherein the control circuit device compares an erase count orwrite count of data for each physical address of the non-volatile memorydevice with a predetermined threshold value and registers the physicaladdress smaller than the threshold value in the first table.